49Received 26.07.2024. Revised 28.08.2024. Accepted 23.09.2024.
Abstract. Since the Soviet Union disintegration, the South Caucasus has become one of volatile parts in Eurasia. Although now it has found itself in the shadow of Ukraine, the events of 2020–2023 in Nagorno-Karabakh attracted political as well scholarly attention to this region. Today we observe the shaping of the new South Caucasus regional order, when some familiar alliances are experiencing crises, while others, on the contrary, are significantly strengthening. Against this background, the situation in Abkhazia looks, at first glance, static. However, it cannot be treated as a breakthrough in the conflict resolution. Until now, this partly recognized entity represents a set of contradictions and collisions. While the Georgian influence is not so serious, the growing impact of the Russian economic and military assistance has established a dilemma between the national self-determination and deepening integration with Russia. This situation of apparent stability opens up a good opportunity to study the conflict dynamics in Abkhazia through the prism of new approaches. The Abkhazian case is well-studied in the schorarly literature and therefore discovery of new research niches is a difficult task to implement. At the same time, the vast majority of scientific works are distributed across various disciplinary areas (history, ethnology and ethnopolitical science, international relations and international law) or focus on narrow chronological periods. Hence the formation of a research phenomenon, defined as the predominance of “detailing” over the “system”, empirics over generalizations and synthesis. This article proposes a new approach to considering the genesis and dynamics of conflicts in Abkhazia. In accordance with the theoretical approaches of P. Bourdieu, the author examines the Abkhaz case as a conflict field. It is studied as interaction, competition, and confrontation among various players from the mid‑19th to the first quarter of the 21st centuries.
Keywords: conflict field, Abkhazia, Russia, Georgia, frontier, nationalism, identity, South Caucasus, self-determination
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